CHAP. VI. The Church of Rome unholy in its Essentials
CHAP. VI. The Church of Rome unholy in its Essentials.
A rgum. 4. THE true Catholic Church is Holy: the Church of Rome hath for many generations been unholy: therefore the Church of Rome was not in any of those Generations the true Catholic Church.
The Major Proposition is an Article of the Creed professed by themselves, as much as by us, [I Believe the Holy Catholic Church.]
The unholiness of the Church of Rome, I prove undeniably, thus: If an Essential part of the Church of Rome, even its Head, hath been unholy through many Generations, then the Church of Rome hath been unholy for many Generations: but an Essential part, even the Head, hath been unholy: therefore, &c.
The Consequence of the Major is past denial. Bonum est ex causis integris. Though it will not follow that the Church is Holy, because one
Essential part is Holy, yet it clearly followeth that the Church is unholy, because an Essential part is unholy. As it followeth not that the Body is sound, because the Head is sound; yet it followeth, that the man (or the body) is unsound or sick, because the Head is unsound or sick. As it is not a
Church without all its Essential parts, so it is not a Holy Church without the Holiness of all its Essential parts.
And that they make the Pope the Head of the Catholic Church, and an Essential part, I am loath to prove; I would I could but entice them to deny it: for it is the principal controversy between them and the true Catholics.
And that abundance of their Popes have been unholy, I have formerly proved, and they dare not I hope deny it; when their own Historians describe their Impieties, and their own Writers, even those that are bitterest against us, do freely confess it: yea General Councils have judged them and cast them out. The number of these Monsters is so great, that it would make a volume greater than I intend, but to name them and recite their crimes. I will give a brief instance of one of them.
Pope John the twenty third was accused and deposed by the General Council at Constance, upon about seventy Articles which in Binius take up about thirteen columns in folio: and therefore I suppose you would give me no thanks to trouble you with the recital of them all. The first Article was, that he was from his youth, a man of a bad disposition, immodest, impudent, a liar, a rebel and disobedient to his parents, and given to most vices, and then was, and yet is commonly taken for such a one by all that knew him. The second Article was, how by Simoniacal and unjust means he grew rich. The third Article, that by Simony he was promoted to be a Cardinal. The fourth Article, that being Legat at Bononia he governed
Tyrannically, impiously, unjustly, being wholly alien from all Christian piety, and justice, divine and human, &c. The fifth Article, that thus he got to be Pope, and yet continued as bad, and as a Pagan despised the worship of God, and if he performed any, it was more lest he should be totally blamed of heresy and cast out of the Papacy, then for any devotion, and he
huddled it up like a Hunter or a Soldier. The sixth Article was, that he was the oppressor of the poor, the persecutor of righteousness, the pillar of the unjust, and the Simoniacal, a server of the flesh, the dregs of vices, a stranger to virtue, flying from public consistories, wholly given to sleep and carnal desires, wholly contrary to the life and manners of Christ, the mirror of infamy, and the profound inventor of all mischiefs; so far scandalizing the Church of Christ, that among Christian Believers that knew his life and manners, he is commonly called, The Devil incarnate. The seventh Article was, that being a vessel of all sins, repelling the worthy, he Simonically sold Benefices, Bishoprics and Church dignities openly to the unworthy that would give most for them.
Reader, I should but weary thee to add threescore more of these Articles.
These were all proved to be Notorious by Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, and many more. Yet I will crave thy patience while I add but two or three of the last. Another was, that he came to be Pope by causing Pope Alexander and his Physician Dr. Daniel de Sophia to be poisoned. Another was, that he committed incest with his brothers Wife, and with the holy Nuns, and Whoredom with Virgins, and adultery with men's Wives, and other crimes of incontinency, for which the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. Another, that he was a wicked man, notoriously guilty of Murder, Witchcraft and other grievous crimes, a dissipater of the Church goods, a notorious Simonist, and pertinacious Heretic. The next Article was, that often and often before diverse Prelates and other honest men, by the Devils persuasion, he obstinately asserted, dogmatized, and maintained, that there is no life everlasting, nor any other after this; Moreover, he said and obstinately believed that the soul of man doth die and is extinct with the body like the brute beasts, and that the dead shall not rise again at the last
day, contrary to the Article of the Resurrection. The last and some other Articles are about his perfidiousness.] And hereupon the Council deposed him.
And now Reader I leave thee to judge, whether the Roman Church had a holy Head, when it had a Heathen and a Devil incarnate?
So the general Council at Basil deposed Pope Eugenius 4th as being [A rebel against the holy Canons, a notorious disturber and scandalizer of the peace and unity of the Church, a Simonist and a perjured wretch, incorrigible, a schismatic, and an obstinate Heretic.]
Pope John 13th, alias 12th, was in Council convicted of ravishing Maids, Wives, Widows at the Apostolic doors, and committing many murders: he drunk a health to the Devil, and at Dice called to Jupiter and Venus for help, and at last was slain in the act of Adultery. Saith Plutina [he was from his youth a man contaminated with all dishonesty and filthiness; and if he had any time to spare from his lusts, he spent it in hunting, and not in praying.]
And after he calls him [a most wicked man, or rather a Monster] and saith that [the life of this most wicked man being judged in a Council of Italian
Bishops, for fear of them he fled and lived like a wild beast in the woods,] till at last he got the better again by the help of his friends at Rome; till an angry man that found him naught with his wife, got the better of him, and sent him to answer it in another world. And their own writers note that this was the first Pope that changed his name, whom his followers imitated. And do you think the Head of the Roman Church was then Holy?
If it were a disputable matter, I would prove out of abundance of their own writers, that many others of them have been most wicked wretches, common adulterers, and fornicators, yea Sodomites, poisoning their predecessors to get the Popedom &c. But its needless, because they deny it
not. Baronius their flattering Champion saith (Annal ad an. 912.) What then was the face of the holy Roman Church? How exceeding filthy, when the most potent, and yet the most sordid whores did rule at Rome? By whose
Pleasure Sees were changed, Bishops were given, and which is a thing horrid to be heard, and not to be spoken, their Lovers (or mates) were thrust into Peters Chair, being false Popes, who are not to be written in the Catalogue of the Roman Popes, but only for the marking out of such times.
And what kind of Cardinals, Priests, and Deacons think you we must imagine that these monsters did choose, when nothing is so rooted in nature as for everyone to beget his like?
And Genebrard that spleenish Papist (li. 4. Sec. 10.) saith [In this one thing that age was unhappy, that for near one hundred and fifty years about fifty Popes did wholly fall away from the virtue of their ancestors, being rather irregular and Apostatical, then Apostolical] So that the Church of Rome had not then either a Holy or Apostolical Head.
And Pope Adrian the sixth himself writeth (De Sacram. Confir. Art. 4.) that there have many Popes of Rome been Heretics. And two or three several General Councils did condemn Pope Honorius for a Heretic.
And if I should tell you but what their own writers say of the wickedness of the Roman Clergy, in many ages; and of the wickedness of the Roman people, of the large sums of money that the Pope hath yearly for the licensed or tolerated Whorehouses in Rome, you would think that the body of the particular Roman Church were near kin to the Head, and therefore not the Holy Mistress of all Churches.
But perhaps some will say, that the Pope was holy because his Office was Holy, though his person vicious. Answ. 1. If this be the Holiness of the Catholic Church, mentioned in the Creed, then the Institution of offices is it
that makes it Holy, and while the office continueth, the Holiness cannot be lost. 2. Then let them prove their Holiness by Saints no more. 3. Let them not then delude the people, but speak out, and tell them that they mean such
Holiness as is consistent with Heathenism, or Infidelity, Murders, Sodomy, and may be in an incarnate Devil! Is this the Holiness of the Catholic
Church?
Obj. But you may have unholy persons among you also, that yet say you are of the true Church.
Answ. But they are no Essential part of the Catholic Church which we believe; and therefore it may be a Holy Church, though they be unholy. But the Pope is an Essential part of the Roman Church which they believe in; and therefore it cannot be Holy, if he be unholy.
Obj. By this means you leave no room for the Church of Rome or any Papist in the Catholic Church which is truly Holy.
Answ. Not as Papists: so they can be no members of it. But if with any of them Christianity be predominant, and prevail against the infection of Popery, so that it practically extinguish not Christianity, then as Christians they may be members of the Church, and be saved too, but not as Papists.